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After a week of wearing nothing but t-shirts and jeans, Lieutenant Kim Sharp finally understood why so many complained about Starfleet dress uniforms. At least they weren’t the awful one-piece, high collared disasters they’d been in the early part of the 70s.
“Any idea what they want me for?” Kim asked to the open personal comm channel in her quarters aboard the USS Frontier.
“You know I can’t answer that,” came the reply from Major Sevak Kh’via, V’Shar liaison to Starfleet Command and someone with a higher security clearance than even Captain Picard himself.
“So you do know,” Kim turned her eyes from the mirror to the monitor and raised a blonde brow at her beloved. She’d meant it jokingly, but now she was curious.
Sevak rolled her eyes. “Your collar is crooked,” she said. A master at avoiding an actual question when there was one.
“No, it’s just the way my neck is turned,” Kim argued and fussed at the hem of her uniform tunic. The whole damn thing was off.
“I told you it was too small,” Sevak said.
The shoulders and sleeves were tight, the chest was loose in odd places and tight in others and the trousers felt like they wanted to fall off. “Well, hopefully I won’t have it on for too long--” Kim stopped herself and grinned at a dirty thought. “You know, I could use some help with that.”
Sevak pursed her adorable lips and the tips of her Vulcan ears turned a slight shade of purple like they always did when she was trying not to blush. “No doubt,” was all she could say.
The computer chirped at Kim, “Commander Sharp, it is 1400 hours. Your meeting with Admiral Janeway begins in five minutes,” it said.
“Good luck...my love,” Sevak said after a brief pause. The tips of her ears were a darker purple.
Kim couldn’t help a blush. She kissed her hand and pressed it to the screen. “Thank you, baby. Pick me up later? If this is what I think it’s about, I could use an ice cream after.”
Sevak looked around as if anyone else could be watching in her empty office. “I know just the place. I’d say tell me how it goes, but I’ll probably know before you,” she joked. “Sa’,” she said and the transmission disconnected.
Too much was going on for Kim to fully process that Sevak had just said the most serious thing a Vulcan in love could say to another. She took one look at the mirror at her uniform that looked more like the effort she’d put in to trying to stuff her body into it. It would have to be good enough. Being scolded for uniform tidiness would just be sprinkles on top of the tongue lashing she was anticipating for being the reason why the USS Frontier was in drydock.
Ten years as a Starfleet officer and half of them driving starships...it was a good run.
Kim opened the door and stood on the transporter pad. “Computer, beam me to Vice Admiral Janeway’s office, Starfleet Command.”
“She’s here, Admiral,” the young Yeoman at Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway’s desk said before Kim was done materializing.
A steady rain pattered against the windows of the rebuilt Starfleet Command Headquarters. It was a welcome surprise to the normal cool, sunny San Franciscan weather Kim seemed to always encounter when here and put a smile on her face.
“Thank you, Yeoman. Send her in,” Janeway said through the comm.
- - - - - - - -
Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway looked up from her desk as the tall, burly helmsman from the USS Frontier strode through her doorway. She’d met Commander Sharp during her one and only tour after she’d taken her post as Chief of Starfleet Intelligence.
Frontier was one of the few ships to make it through the entirety of the Dominion War and had been blessed with a refit at the time. The War as just starting when Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant and had clearly taken its toll; so many young faces aboard that ship, including Captain Dearing. She knew him from her days aboard the Al-Batani, but then he’d been a pimply faced engineer.
Lieutenant Commander Sharp was one of those youthful faces Janeway remembered from that tour. The youth part was just in that baby face and her age according to her personnel file. However, constant service on the front line of that war aged her quicker than most.
She was the ship’s helmsman, but as a former Academy rugby team star, and Vulcan martial artist, she was an expert tactician and had a mean right hook. All the makings of the kind of broken down super soldier the old Starfleet would have loved.
Out of courtesy, Janeway rose and nearly had a laugh at the height difference between the two.
“Before we begin, Admiral. I just want to say that Pakled ship created armor shadows that I didn’t anticipate. I’m sincere when I say I didn’t mean to plow into them. I’m normally a better pilot...Sir...Ma’am.” Kim stood at a nervous attention. The subject of the collision between USS Frontier and the Pakled transport was a serious one, though her ill-fitted dress uniform made the scene far more comical than it needed to be.
Janeway couldn’t help a snorted laugh. “I’m sorry for laughing, Commander. Did the collision do something to your replicators? Your uniform…” Kathryn laughed again.
The seriousness of Kim’s demeanor broke and she shook her head. “No, I’m sorry, Admiral. My wife...I should have listened to her and got my uniform tailored when she told me to.”
“Please sit.” Admiral Janeway gestured to the chair in front of her desk. “Your wife?” She asked with a frown. “I didn’t see that in your personnel file.”
“My partner. We’re not actually married...yet, but I call her that. We might as well be,” Kim said.
“Sounds like she’s a smart woman that you should be listening to,” Janeway said.
Kim nodded and ran a hand through her short blonde hair. “You would be correct, Admiral.”
“The reason I called you here was not because of that incident with the Pakleds. That particular transport was a nuisance along our shipping lanes for a while and we warned them months ago something like that was bound to happen. I didn’t realize they were creating sensor shadows.” Janeway frowned. It was unusual for Pakled ships to do something so aggressive. Her curiosity was piqued.
“I looked at our sensor logs. My navigational scans showed a nearly 250 meter variance between that and what the actual ship dimensions are.” Kim sat back and folded her hands across her lap.
“And that ship is still at McKinley?” Janeway asked.
Kim nodded. “Not going anywhere for a while either. You don’t collide with an Excelsior class ship moving at half impulse and come unscathed.”
“Hm…” Janeway said, her mind spinning with questions. “I will have to investigate.” Janeway rose from her chair and glanced at the rainy cityscape below and the Skycars flitting to and fro. Somewhere down there were workers on the scaffolding she saw on some of the buildings, toiling in the wet to repair a city that was also recovering from the War.
“You know, Commander, you are the poster child of a Starfleet officer: Tall, handsome, war hero, head on straight even if your navigational sensors are a little off,” she joked.
Kim couldn’t help a laugh. She rose out of the chair and ventured to the window beside Kathryn. “So I keep being told.”
“What do you want to do with yourself?” Janeway asked.
“I uh...honestly, I haven’t given it much thought,” Kim replied.
Honest answer. Janeway couldn’t help but smile. “And that’s a problem. I brought you here because they want to promote you.”
Kim’s mouth dropped a little. “Wow...but if you mean First Officer--”
“—Then where is Captain Dearing?” Janeway finished the sentence and watched the youngster’s face change to a woman who desperately wanted something alcoholic. To be fair, Kathryn’s own heart was in her throat on her behalf. She cleared her throat to steady herself. “The brass has been talking about it for months. We need good people and you’ve more than earned it.”
“But going from Second Officer to Captain is a big jump.” Kim said.
“Usually, but we’re in desperate need of good people.” Janeway turned her eyes back to the city below. “They’re not lining up like they used to be.”
“So, you need me to be the poster child?” Kim asked and raised a dubious eyebrow.
It was Janeway’s turn to be completely honest. “Not in the way you’re thinking, Commander. The Federation is in a whole new crisis and that crisis is you. You’re a great officer, but I see it behind your eyes; the weariness. I saw it the day I met you on the Frontier. How old are you, Commander?”
“27.” Kim replied. Her face was one of pain as though Janeway had peeled away her skin.
“How old do you feel?”
Kim was silent.
“Nobody wants to fly through the stars anymore because all they’ve known for the last ten years has been war and death. They see kids like you and younger going off to die. I can’t say I blame them. Resuming my post in the Alpha Quadrant has been an eye opener.” Janeway couldn’t help a sad sigh of her own. She gestured for Kim to follow and tapped her communicator. “Computer, two to beam to Starbase 007, Dock 6.”
- - - - - - - - -
Lieutenant Commander Kim Sharp and Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway materialized just outside the hatchway to Dock 6. Security was tighter than ever and the Tellarite Security Officer exempted neither Kim nor Kathryn from a detailed molecular scan to make sure that neither of them were some sort of Shapeshifter or carrying any kind of biomatter explosives or cellular listening devices or anything else that could be deemed a threat.
“Thank you, Sirs,” the Tellarite said and waved them through the hatch.
It was nobody but the two of them and the ship in front of the large bay windows looking out at the interior of the starbase. In comparison to USS Enterprise and USS Galileo, the ship in front of them wasn’t much for size, but she was state-of-the art.
“USS Stellar Drift,” Kim read off the diamond-shaped saucer section. “Duel deflector dishes and it looks like she has Yawman Impulse Diffusers.”
“She’s Vesta class, but, unlike her sister ships, she’s a one-of-a-kind collaboration between the Daystrom Institute and Kaminar. Her long range sensors will allow you to see farther and in greater detail than any other ship. She also has state-of-the-art science labs that make me jealous. She’s also yours if you want it, Commander.” Janeway said.
Kim felt the Admiral’s eyes on her and a weight of something far greater.
Command.
She was no stranger to the Command Chair aboard Frontier. But this was something entirely different. No nets. Size or not, a ship was a ship, and the responsibility of hundreds of lives was a lot to think about.
What was it that Admiral Janeway had said about a crisis? She was the crisis. For being a veteran. For fighting.
No, for being a fighter.
Kim looked harder at Stellar Drift. It was a ship with not many teeth. That wasn’t its purpose was it? Science labs, long range sensor arrays. There was something endearing about it, something innocent. She felt a pang of sadness she hadn’t felt since her first year in Starfleet.
“You know...I didn’t join Starfleet to fight wars…” Kim began. She turned around and leaned against the glass and looked Janeway in her pretty eyes. “I grew up on a farm in Central Oregon and I built airplanes with my brothers and we’d fly them. My favorite was this red Beech 17 Staggerwing Marc found in an old shed somewhere in Pennsylvania and gave to me for my birthday. My neighbors hated it. Every time we had nice flying weather, I’d be slaloming the Deschutes River Canyon pretending I was Hikaru Sulu or Keyla Detmer or Ron Paris or someone like that. I just wanted to fly ships.”
“You don’t have to take it--” Kim interrupted the Admiral with a shake of her head.
“—These memories being conjured up feel like forever ago because, you’re right, everything was so fundamentally changed. But...the real crisis is nobody is going to take this ship. How many officers were offered this Command and turned it down?” Kim asked.
“Thirteen,” Janeway admitted.
“I’m going to guess they’re either senior officers on bigger ships or commanding them,” Kim said.
Janeway nodded. “Contrary to popular belief, I refuse to accept this is a Navy.”
Kim smiled. “Even the ye olden US Navy operated scientific projects.”
“So, you accept?” Janeway asked, her eyebrows flitting with excitement.
Kim’s heart was loud in her ears as she nodded her head slowly. “What am I getting myself into?” She whispered.
“I’m pretty sure I said the same thing about Voyager when I took Command,” Janeway said with a laugh. “I was hoping you’d say yes. I’m dying to look at those science labs.”